There is a thin line between a very good player and a great player. While the former possess the necessary skills to be successful, the great ones take it beyond that point with the intangibles. May it be through leadership, the values of patience and determination, Isaiah Thomas shows this by being a 4th quarter, crunch time player.

Isaiah Thomas may relatively be a diminutive player in a league of giants. But it doesn’t prevent him from scoring at will and helping the Celtics to victory.

In fact, apart from Paul Pierce, Isaiah Thomas may have bested Paul Pierce (2006 versus Cleveland) in performing a 50 pt. game during the regular season.

During the Celtics victory over the Heat on Friday Isaiah scored 52 points on 15/26 shooting, where he scored 29 points in the 4th quarter alone.

“I’ve just never seen nobody score that many points in one-quarter before,” Gerald Green told ESPN. “That was just unbelievable to me.”

Isaiah Thomas vs. Paul Pierce

“[Pierce] and LeBron were really going at it,” Green said. “I think LeBron had like [43 points] himself. It was one of those games where you’d seen two great players going head-to-head. And Pierce took the challenge, LeBron took the challenge, they were both guarding each other. It was an unbelievable game, between two competitive guys.

“But what I.T. did the other night — he literally put us on his back and carried us in that fourth quarter, man. We needed him.”

Thomas remains one of the best scorers of the fourth quarter along with Russell Westbrook. This he attributes to his aggressiveness and determination to make winning plays for his teammates.

Clutch scoring ability

“Taking advantage of the moment, always wanting that moment. I always say fourth quarter isn’t for everybody. I embrace it, knowing my teammates and my coaching staff look to me to be very aggressive in the fourth quarter, not just to score, but to make winning plays. I embrace that moment and I always have. It’s just something that I’m pretty good at, I guess,” Isaiah Thomas told NBA.com

Thomas points out that the fourth quarter isn’t for anyone, it’s when the best flourishes.

“No. It’s for the best players, not just saying I’m one of the best players, but you’ve seen it if you’re a fan of the game of basketball. Whether it be Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, [the] fourth quarter is where they really lock in and take over games, and I always wanted to be one of those players.”